Ed Miliband tells Labour conference Palestinian campaigners were right

Ed Miliband told Labour’s conference on 28 September that people who challenged the party over the plight of Palestinians had been right. The foreign secretary linked that acknowledgment to plans to ban imports from Israeli settlements and restrict British services that support their expansion. His remarks put a direct admission about Labour’s earlier approach alongside a policy announcement whose main measures still await implementation.

Addressing people in Britain and elsewhere who had been moved and outraged by Palestinian suffering, Miliband said: ‘We hear you. You were right.’ He said Labour had ‘reset our approach’ under Prime Minister Andy Burnham. The full text of his conference speech was published by LabourList after The Guardian reported the planned remarks earlier that day.

What Miliband said

Miliband presented the shift as part of a broader argument about Labour’s foreign policy. He said the party could succeed ‘because of, not in spite of, our progressive values’, and argued that Britain should work with other countries to turn those values into action. The settlement measures were his central example of that approach in the Israel and Palestine section of the speech.

He described a secure Israel and a secure Palestine, each with freedom, dignity and self-determination, as the only route to peace. He condemned Hamas’ 7 October attack, said Labour would stand against antisemitism and recognised the threats Israel faces. He then said those threats could not justify the suffering caused by the Netanyahu government in Gaza and the West Bank.

The settlement measures

In the speech, Miliband said the government would ban imports of goods from settlements and disrupt British finance, construction and services supporting them. His 8 September statement to the House of Commons gave the policy more detail: an import ban, a broader sanctions regime with religious exemptions, and action against specified companies and individuals providing services such as construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate for settlement expansion.

The government said it expected legislation within six to nine months. The import ban and wider regime were therefore announced plans at the time of the speech, rather than completed restrictions. Miliband’s Commons statement also set out more immediate steps, including sanctions on additional settlers and an extension of the existing human-rights sanctions regime.

Miliband said the proposed restrictions were aimed at settlements and their expansion, rather than trade with Israel as a whole. He said the UK would continue supporting trade with Israel within the Green Line. That distinction defines the scope of the government’s stated policy, even as the detailed rules and their practical effects await implementation.

Reaction and wider context

Associated Press reported that Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, condemned the measures announced on 8 September and said Israel would close the British consulate in Jerusalem and take other diplomatic steps. That reaction preceded Miliband’s conference speech and was directed at the settlement policy he later cited there.

The UK was part of a wider group of countries announcing settlement-related measures. Le Monde reported that Britain, France, nine other European countries and Canada announced sanctions on products originating from West Bank settlements on 8 September. It said each country still had to define implementation details, while the European Union had not reached agreement on joint action.

At conference, Miliband treated that international response as evidence for his argument that countries could act together on shared priorities. His immediate message to Labour members was more personal: critics who pressed the party over Palestinian suffering had been heard. The next test of the government’s stated approach is the legislation and detailed rules promised for the settlement measures.